The Network: Airport Connections

Linking Airports with Passenger Rail

The Nation's air system is under going a radical restructuring. Service to smaller communities is continuing to decline as the airlines look for a ways to cut costs.

In order to remain connected to the air system, communities and businesses throughout the Midwest have taken on a greater financial burden in providing airport services and airline advertising in an effort to keep existing service or gain new flights.

Fast and frequent railroad service can be used to connect these smaller communities and many more to major hub airports, supplementing existing feeder flights.

For example, Springfield and Bloomington/Normal, IL are located on the Chicago to St. Louis Amtrak route. Each airport has just three daily flights to O'Hare. The Illinois Department of Transportation has plans to increase the existing rail service to nine daily trains.

If the rail route were connected directly to O'Hare, these communities would, in effect gain nine daily "flights" to O'Hare, increasing the access to international markets. Additionally, five other Illinois towns would gain direct O'Hare access.